jerusalem palestinians can't, or won't, vote

it seems as if east jerusalem's 120,000 palestinians, technically residents of israel, will not vote in tomorrow's presidential election, the first since the 1996 Oslo-era elections in which recently deceased president arafat won by an overwhelming majority.

the problem for palestinians living here in jerusalem is complex, but mainly consists of inadequate polling centers and israel's refusal to publicly refute rumors that are scaring most of the 120,000 from even thinking about voting. the rumor, passed down from various clerks working in official israeli offices which deal daily with jerusalem's palestinian residents, is that if these people cast a vote they risk getting their rights as israeli residents revoked. palestinians living in jerusalem are granted health care and national insurance benefits like jewish israelis, as well as other benefits, and are terrified that voting in the national palestinian elections will give the israeli authorities an (unjustifiable) excuse to revoke their national IDs along with their benefits.

for this reason, those 120,000, according to this friday's jerusalem post, will not likely vote. even if they did, however, the restrictions israel has placed on voting pose insurmountable difficulties for them. according to various news sources, including the post, as well as local knowledge, these palestinians will be allowed to vote at one of six post offices in the jerusalem area. these polling places and various palestinian organizations have asserted that the post offices will only be able to process the votes of 6,000 people tomorrow. voting will take place from 7am to 7pm.

thus more than 110,000 palestinians in jerusalem will remain locked out of their national elections for the simple reason of too little space for voting. israeli authorities have argued that they will allow jerusalem residents to travel to nearby, west bank villages in order to cast a ballot. most jerusalem palestinians are not willing to take the chance that they will not be allowed re-entrance to jerusalem, however, and are likely to abstain.

this problem is further amplified by a report, again from the post, which says that israeli authorities closed registration offices after only one week during which jerusalem palestinians were allowed to register to vote. many people were turned away, and the officials operating the registration centers were threatened with arrest by israeli police as they initially refused to close down registration. some democracy.

tomorrow i will be travelling the west bank with my camera, documenting possible abuses at checkpoints, freedom of movement issues, etc. i will report on my travels tomorrow evening.